Groupon Poaches Yahoo Ad Exec as First Head of National Ad Sales

Lee Brown, regional VP at Yahoo in New York, has left to become head of national sales at Groupon, the Internet coupon company has confirmed.

Brown will take the role of SVP working to develop national accounts at Groupon. The story was first reported by All Things Digital.

Rob Solomon, Groupon’s president, is a former top executive with Yahoo, though it is not clear whether that played any role in Brown’s defection.

Groupon has built a vast following (and spawned a rash of copycats) during its two years in operation by offering deeply discounted, hyper-localized deals that require little risk or investment from advertisers. Google was reportedly set to pay up to $6 billion to acquire the company before talks fell apart earlier this month.